CALL OF THE SEA

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32035, 9 July 1969, Page 20

CALL OF THE SEA

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) LONDON. Fred Ellis’s parents would not let him go tb sea in the 1920 s but now he is making up for it. Each week-end, he takes a bus to the station, a train to the coast, and then goes to sea—in a ferry. Mr Ellis, aged 62, a retired railway clerk, travels as a passenger on a British Railways train ferry from Harwich, Essex, to Zeebrugge, Belgium. Recently when the 2500-ton Suffolk Ferry docked at Harwich, it was the end of Fred’s 101st round trip since he retired two years ago. He said: “It’s just a hobby. I’m too old now to be taken

on in a job at sea and this is the nearest I can get to it. “I’ve been through force nine gales on the ferry but I’ve never once felt seasick.” He always goes aboard the 22-year-old Suffolk Ferry, oldest of the four ferries leaving regularly for Zeebrugge. "Everyone from the mate to the galley boy calls me Fred,” said Mr Ellis. "Often, in winter. I’m the only passenger aboard." Mr Ellis lives on a British Railways pension at Ilford, Essex. As a retired railwayman, he can travel at quarter fare. His return trip costs just over $4.

“I can buy duty-free cigarettes too, so it almost pays me to go,” he said.